Hickory experience

[metallion]

Had a great experience the other day. Played a tournament with hickory clubs from the 1920's.

The Mashie had Harry Vardon engraved and the guy leading the event said he was sure it had been sold at Harry Vardons golf store. Geez. Hitting a club that HV may have held in his hands. What a feeling.

My setup was:
1 Spoon
1 Mid Iron
1 Mashie
1 Mashie Niblick
1 Niblick
1 Putter

I though (we all thought) it'd be close to impossible to get anything near a decent score. We were all surprised.

Ok. Playing out of the bunker was very difficult.

But the Spoon. Amazing. I felt I could hit it close to the same distance as my 2006 whistles-and-bells spoon.

We played with Pro V1's.

Just to say that if you ever get a chance you should try it.

The sound and feel of a well-struck spoon or brassie is just awesome. The irons are nice too. Ahd it is fully possible to get used to the putter. Did not let any of us down much.

It was awesome and I am considering getting a set to play every now and then. Not for Hitters, though. You basically can't play them unless you Swing.

I am dead sure that I'd be able to shoot my current score plus 2-3 shots over 18 holes after limited practice.

The problems were basically:
- Not much of a clue how long each club played. Hard to hit greens.
- Difficult - but possible - from the bunkers.

Other than that: Nothing really

VERY NICE

Another fun thing is that are are probably just 500 players world wide who have their own sets and play hicory on regular basis. Which means there is a world tournament that you can actually play. Handicap limit was 9ish. It is up next month. The winner gets some $7.000. Pretty interesing.

The current champ is an american. Last time they had a world tournament he shot 67 on a 6100 metre course.

So this ia no joke. This is real frickin golf.

Now try it. I'd recomment having an instructor. Imploredly with...

[birdie_man]

That sounds deadly man....I'd love to give that a shot....see what golf was like for the old timers.

I seriously want to try this.

So...

What do you feel then about not being able to use a "modern swing" like a lot of ppl say?

Did u try to swing smoother?

[metallion]

What do you feel then about not being able to use a "modern swing" like a lot of ppl say?

Did u try to swing smoother?

I felt I was close to my normal swing. I did not swing that much smoother. but tried to give it more of a lash off the tee at one time. The result was a high hook.

I never even thought of Hitting or punching - even though its probably possible to punch some.

I'd say swingspeeds up to 100 mph is ok, but over that you risk wrecking the clubs or lose a lot of precision.

One thing i liked is that bunkers became MUCH more of a hazard than with modern equipment - bringing strats & course mgmt into play.

And I think that playing hickory every now and then is beneficial to your game. A good hickory player will be smokin' on steel.

[birdie_man]

I wonder why it's so hard outta the bunkers....?

The shaft doesn't has too much give when it hits the sand??

...

I bet the heads are pretty unforgiving eh?

Low trajectory?

[metallion]

I wonder why it's so hard outta the bunkers....?

The shaft doesn't has too much give when it hits the sand??

The reason is that the club(head)s had very little bounce. Basically nought. Sandwedges were not invented in the 20's.

Again: The game becomes much more interesting when the bunkers are REALLY hazards.

I bet the heads are pretty unforgiving eh?

Low trajectory?

My ballstriking was good that day and I did not have any problems. Even though the face of the spoon was about half my normal one.

The pro said low trajectory shots were recommended, but we all played a bit of everything.